The Rural Incident

Last summer, Sarah Clunis, former curator of African Art at the University of Iowa Museum of Art and Katie Roche, cultural animator extraordinaire and all-around culture vulture started a series of art events in Oxford, Iowa called "The Rural Incident." In her academic work, Clunis studies rituals and their portrayal in art. She decided to host her own art salon in her town of 800 as a way to celebrate local art and also display the works of artists who might not otherwise see their works exhibited in eastern Iowa. Let's face it. There's a lot of people making art out here and what actually gets shown is generally pretty crappy. My profile of Clunis just ran in ArtScene Iowa. Beware -- it's a pdf and you have to scroll through the mag to find it.

Robert Wilson is not an actual human being

Robert Wilson's VOOM: Portraits just opened at the UI Museum of Art. The museum paid an estimated $150,000 to bring the exhibition here, about three times what it normally pays for its big shows. And is this show big. To mount it, they had to take the museum's whole permanent collection out and put it in storage. I'd had to be the person traveling to Iowa City from Chicago to see the museum's Pollock only to find out that there is a video portrait of Robert Downey Jr. on a cadaver table in its place. It would be really easy to take a cynical view of this show, after all, it was commissioned by a HDTV company. The whole thing could function as the sexiest tv commercial you've ever seen. But it's probably one of the most exciting things to happen in Iowa since I've been here. Nothing really goes on in the portraits, but there is something happening that compels you to stand and watch.

Oh, and now heard Robert Wilson tell the same three stories about four times -- the one about being in the Berlin zoo and listening to the wolves with his body, the one about his deaf son Raymond, the one about filming the panther that appears in the show. He used the same exact words every time. I'm pretty sure every human interaction is a performance for him.

Oxford Rising

Two couples who got pushed out of New Orleans by Katrina just opened a restaurant in the tiny town of Oxford (800 people), about 15 miles east of Iowa City. They're serving Cajun/Creole and American fusion at lunch prices. I've been twice and had the grits and grillades as well as the shrimp po'boy, which was so good it made me close my eyes. Last summer, one of the couples also started a series of art salons in their home. I don't know how the locals are embracing all this strange action, but for me, all I can say is that I've got a lot of new reasons to leave town.

Meet DeKooning!

Well, we got another cat. A kitten actually. His name is DeKooning and we adopted him from Pet Central Station, where we got our other cat, Mooney. He's an affectionate little bugger, running around like a crazy cat and always crying when we leave. He's got cute little white feet and tufts coming out of his ears. Before he came to live with us, he was a farm cat down in Kalona, Iowa. I'll try to post more pics when we get them, but in the meantime, what a happy little boy this is.

Register launching new site

Online entertainment editor Kyle Munson of the The Des Moines Register gave students at the University of Iowa last week a sneak peak at the beta site of the new Register Site. It's the next in a series of non-too-early changes the DMR is making to try to ensure their print product doesn't die and the paper has some kind of position in the emerging convergence media society. I'm not impressed ... yet. The content still seems the same. Worse yet, taking a cue from Facebook and other social networking sites, the DMR is asking visitors to the site to create their own content and upload it in various multimedia sections. I'm guessing this doesn't bode well for reporters.

Savannah Cats!

Adam and I spent the weekend in Chicago attending a cat show in the suburb Franklin Park. We met four show cat Savannahs and countless kittens, including one that boxed with a tassel toy for about fifteen minutes. Savannahs are the most dog-like of cats -- they play fetch, they go for walks, they like to play in the water. Most don't weigh much more than regular cats, but what they lack in girth they make up for in length. This cat, owned by Donna Lawver, didn't place in the competition but I liked it for its emerald eyes and fantastic posing style. I'll post the article if and when it gets published.

I'd rather wear out than rust out!

Today I tagged along with Paul Ingram, the Midwest's most famous bookseller, to a reading by Mildred Armstrong Kalish of her memoir, Little Heathens. Millie's amazing. She's sharp as a tack, and has this great storytelling voice. She read to a group of about a dozen residents at Legacy Pointe, an assisted living facility in Iowa City. The room was filled to capacity -- mostly because of all the posh walkers everyone brought with them. Here's more about her book.